Monday, January 20, 2014

Hey everyone! As I was deciding what polish to wear for Mani Monday this week, I remembered this pearlescent Zoya polish, Gaia, that I've owned for years. It seemed like a nice color to refresh my nails with since I really enjoyed last week's sparkling nude-pink. Guess I'm just on an effervescent nail kick!

When I was vetting my nail polish collection before I moved to LA, Gaia made the cut because the gorgeous, gold-and-pink pearl shimmer really stood out to me. Now, I'm not sure if it's just because I've trained myself to be a nail aficionado but this time around the polish didn't seem to be as besties as last I remember. What, Gaia? I saved you from the garage sale pile and this is how you treat me? 6 COATS for opacity? I just don't know if that's going to cut it this time around.

You heard what I said correctly. I used 6 freaking coats to get it to this level of opacity which, to be honest, isn't even fully covering the VNL aka visible nail line. If you guys have the patience (or remembering, in my case) to apply a coat of white polish as a base, I highly recommend it considering the rate of nicks in your perfect paint job goes up by basically 109229385%* with anything past 3 coats. *This is a statistically correct number according to the study Jen Paints Her Nails Lots.

Otherwise, I used my typical OPI Nail Envy base and Seche Vite Top Coat. Even Seche Vite could not prevent a few nicks and smudges for me, which is summertime sadness. Now, in my defense, this is not one of those "you are supposed to wear it sheer" polishes because each coat settles quite uneven, kind of like when you spill milk on a table with wood grain on it.

The color itself is the same pretty, warm white shade with gold and red micro-shimmers. Beautiful, and much more captivating than my photos show. Unfortunate about the application, so let me know if you guys have a similar polish that's a little less tricky to use than this one.

Readers, how many coats do you usually apply of your polish? Is there one you keep around because you "forgive" its shortcomings? Let me know in the comments!

Wow 6 coats! At least the nail polish looks really pretty on your nails! Typically, I apply base coat, two layers of color, and a top coat. I can get away with one coat for my more opaque nail polishes, but most of mine need a couple of coats. That's a shame that you have to use so many coats because the color itself is so pretty!

Ha ha! This is such a punchy post, I love it! It is a very pretty color, and I can see why it made the cut. But 6 coats really is excessive and they will probably peel right off. To your point, is this a shade that is supposed to be sheer? I am not a fan of sheer or VNL at all. I would rather wear "clear" or natural than have a sheer coat of color because there is something about sheer that looks very unprofessionally done no matter how perfect you do your nails. I have problems with Essie colors like Mademoiselle, Limo Scene and Ballet Slippers also not laying right in the first coat, and looking streaky. I have a feeling based on your posts that my issues could be solved with the proper base coat or using a white layer first.